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Blog

The amazing power of conversations

Conversations are the foundation of so many things. Understanding, decisions, relationships, progression, clarity, direction… and when conversations are done badly over time the very same things erode.

We have been thinking about conversations this week and decided to look for some inspiration on TED. This talk by Celeste Headlee is so simple (and fun!) and we feel really aligned to it here at Aspire.

Some of our favourite parts are around listening which is an extremely powerful connecting skill.

 

 

So often we think the speaker has all the power, but this isn’t the case. Listening is active, not passive. And the good news is we can improve our listening skills and gain so much more from every conversation.

Besides, as Celeste reminds us, ‘no man ever listened his way out of a job!’.

So, this week at Aspire we are enjoying considering these 10 amazing tips and listening to each other. Why don’t you join us and let us know how it goes?

Or if you’d like to learn a bit more about the power of listening and conversations why not have a look at our courses in networking and influencing and communication skills?

 

 

personal training session: how we work

Personal training session logic: How we work

Ever had a personal training session?

Recently my gym asked for some feedback from their members on how it had all been going. I told them about my experiences and made some fairly tongue in cheek comments about Abercrombie models and Birds of a Feather characters (I’ll leave you to decide which was me) and lo and behold I won a set of 5 training sessions.

I was thrilled.

You see, I am someone who hides in the back row. I can make it look like I’m working hard, but often I’m only sort of… bobbing about and no one really notices.

The first session was quite different. 30 minutes of pure, focused attention. Every challenging exercise was designed to work on everything I had been avoiding but needed help with.

All the way through I was completely engaged, and sure that this Abercrombie model had designed everything specifically for me, so I worked harder than I ever had before.

It reminded me of Aspire and what I love about the way we work. Read more

The Power of Words

On most of our courses we consider the power of non-verbal communication in some form. And there is no doubt that non-verbal communication is very powerful.

But words also have power.

Substituting one word for another can be the difference between success and failure in your communication with others…

Read more